MORE than 1000 athletes will compete in the Coca-Cola Lautoka Zone athletics meet which starts at Churchill Park this morning.
All the eyes will be on defending champions Natabua High School in the boy's category and Jasper Williams High School in the girl's category.
Lautoka zone delegate Lionel Danford said the schools had prepared well despite the rainy conditions in the past few weeks.
He said the Churchill Park grass turf looked neat with the white track markings.
Danford said athletes from the Lautoka School for Special Education had been invited for the second year.
"There are some students in the Lautoka School for Special Education who cannot participate in the primary schools competition due to their age," Danford said.
"So we have included them in our zone meet. A total of 1045 athletes will participate from 11 schools. We will start off with a march from Shirley Park to Churchill Park at 8am."
The main events today will include the 1500 metre finals, 400m finals and 100m finals.
Leone Natusa will be the athlete to look out for in the Natabua colours, the Nadarivatu sisters Sereima Liku and Mereseini Nadau will fly the Jasper flag while Ashnil Nand of Tilak High School is a bright gold medal prospect.
Danford said the officials from Athletics Fiji conducted a workshop with their zone meet officials last week.
"We had James Goulding who conducted a coaching clinic," Danford said.